City considers accreditation program for Sixth Street bars to improve security

City staff is considering an accreditation program for bars and nightlife businesses operating in the Sixth Street entertainment district downtown, pushing for more cooperation and standards for safety planning as part of the evolving plan to address safety concerns in the area. Other strategies under consideration include preventing crowds from gathering in the middle of the street during weekend closures, and using temporary barricades and bollards to better manage crowd movement between bars and restaurants.

Staffers from the city’s entertainment services division have in recent months visited Nashville and the Ybor City/Tampa area in Florida to examine how those cities manage their nighttime entertainment districts. The trips are part of the Safer Sixth Street initiative that was launched last summer after a mass shooting on the street left one tourist dead and injured a dozen people.

At last week’s meeting of the Downtown Commission, division manager Brian Block said there has been recent consideration given to at least partially reopening Sixth Street during busy weekend hours, but there is no realistic way to make that happen without a larger redesign and rebuild of the streetscape. Block didn’t say the accreditation program for bars, nightclubs and restaurants would take the place of an entertainment license requirement some City Council members have proposed.

“We’re looking at how can we help them with safety plans, having more security and better training and better managing the space in front of the bar with things like line cues and getting people to not loiter,” he said, noting a goal to provide grants to accredited businesses to help cover the costs of better lighting, security cameras, ID scanners and metal detector wands.

“We envisioned that this would recognize responsible operators and allow us to provide more training and support. It would be also sort of a forum for them to learn, get best practices and get everyone on board with improving operating standards.”

The discussion featured comments from Richard Suttle, attorney for the Stream Realty Group that has in recent years purchased more than 30 lots in the district and plans to remake the area with a focus away from the high-volume shot bars that currently dominate the street. Suttle said the code amendment initiated recently by Council to raise building heights will allow the company to reconstruct some of the properties to accommodate office and hotel uses that will bring daytime business to the area.

Commissioners were largely encouraged by Stream’s plans, though there are some early concerns from the city’s political and planning community about the historic nature of some of the buildings. Suttle said there is a preliminary effort afoot to create a historic district for the area, which he said would add another regulatory layer making projects like Stream’s more costly and possibly unfeasible.

Commissioner Ben Heimsath praised the proposed changes, but pushed Suttle on whether demolition and reconstruction of some spaces is necessary to change the character and business makeup.

“There is the immediate problem of safety and security … however Stream could just get better tenants and work with the city on better policing. Many of the objectives can be met and you don’t have to be adding density,” Heimsath said. “I think this is going to be transformational, it’s going to be a lot of work and it’s going to change things significantly.”

Suttle said early talks with business owners and entrepreneurs interested in opening restaurants, music venues and other businesses in the area have expressed concern over its long-held reputation as an anything-goes party zone on the weekends with very little daytime activity.

“When you talk to somebody and say to them, trust me, you build a nice restaurant here and all these other shot bars we don’t control are going to go away and you’ll have a great business, they look at us like we’re from Mars and say they’re not spending money here until something else happens,” he said. “In order to invest the capital that it takes to get real velocity going, you’re not going to be able to re-tenant it and say it didn’t work out. We’ve tried that and it just didn’t work.”

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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